I’m not sure what got into us, but our Friday hiking group voluntarily decided to climb up to Kalaklan ridge from the Olongapo side via what has been dubbed “the stairway to heaven”. A lot of climbs begin with some form of stairsteps which eventually turn into dirt paths before you reach the top. The stairway to heaven goes all the way up to the ridge–some 200 meters, or 60 floors if the conversion calculator I used is accurate. It’s an ass-kicker, that’s for sure.

As much as I dislike getting up there, I really enjoy the scenery and views on Kalaklan ridge. Let me show you what I mean:

Let me try and leave you with a smile:

Well, the powers that be are beginning to demonstrate their ignorance once again. The governor of Zambales is implementing a new lockdown/liquor ban/curfew effective tomorrow. Luckily, the Mayor of Olongapo has not seen fit to follow suit, Yet. Our barangay captain has done this again though:

Oh, and they closed the gate to my subdivision advising that visitors are no longer allowed. That pissed me off. I told the guards, “so, the construction workers can come in by the truckload but I can’t have company?” I just got the blank stare and “following orders from barangay” response. Jesus.

Today we took the bus to Olongapo to start our hike. As we drove down the highway, I thought of all these bullshit COVID prevention measures being implemented.

I mentioned firing Joy from the FWB program for incessant begging. Now it seems Judy might be heading down that road. She’s more polite about it at least. School is starting and there are fees and supplies to be paid for. She did at least send me copies of the invoice. I told her no, we’ll see if that works. I have no intention of violating Rule #1 (Don’t be stupid). Well, at least I hope I can find new ways to be stupid at least.

And while we are on the subject of stupid, I’ll offer this for your amusement:

Anyway, time for darts. I hope I bring my smart game tonight.

Anyone up for a walk down Baloy Beach?

Right across the highway from the access road to Alta Vista is Baloy Beach road.

If I could find the right place I might consider living here. A nice expat community of its own and who wouldn’t want to live on the beach!

I need to rest and recuperate so I’ll write about today, tomorrow.

Hmm, and now for some reason I can’t load any pictures. So much for posting about yesterday’s hike. Told you I was having a sucky day. I’ll try again tomorrow.

As in Wet Wednesday Walkers. Hate to sound like a broken record, but it is still raining. By my count, that’s seventeen straight days. Oh well, life goes on rain or shine.

Nothing special about last night. A couple of drinks at Dive In. Just not the same for me without Jessa there. Then I had my usual good time with Roan for company at It Doesn’t Matter. And of course, it being “Wingsday” I hit up The Pub for some takeout dinner goodness.

But that’s why I walk, so let’s get to it. As I said, it was a wet walk. It didn’t rain all the time, but lately, we’ve been having heavy downpours accompanied by strong winds. Makes an umbrella pointless. So, I was soaked early and stayed that way for the duration. We took a Jeepney to Waltermart in Subic, then walked the 7K home to Barretto on the back streets. See for yourself:

Anyway, it was a good hike despite the wet conditions.

I might have some news tomorrow about a new business coming to town. Stay tuned.

I’ll leave you with this illustration of getting the most value for your money:

Shenandoah Bend is one of the more interesting streets in the neighborhood, and not just because I live there. It twists and turns and circles around unlike any other road I’ve seen. If anything made any sense in this subdivision (or country for that matter), this would probably be three separate streets. Not that it matters. Another factoid is that there has been more new construction on Shenandoah than anywhere else in Alta Vista. I’m not sure why, but it does have the highest elevation and best views, so maybe that’s it.

This also concludes our exploration of the Alta Vista de Subic subdivision. It was a good experience for me as a resident to take the time to really observe my surroundings. Hope you all enjoyed it too.

And here are the final statistics for whatever they are worth:

13 houses on Shenandoah Bend. (Somebody build another one quick!)

13 streets in Alta Vista. (Yikes! They should have named another cul-de-sac.)

64 houses, including those under construction now.

No idea how many lots are still vacant, but I’m guessing the subdivision is probably only at one-quarter capacity.

Sometimes you just ain’t in the mood for it, I guess. My scheduled day with the FWB, Joy, and we met as scheduled. In accordance with our routine, I treated her to lunch. This time I chose The Pub.

After our meal, I gave Joy the normal 3500 peso stipend and told her we wouldn’t be going back to my house this time. Said I was tired. We’ll see if I’m still tired of her in two weeks. I may need to start thinking of an extraction strategy.

Played in the dart tournament at Alley Cats last night. First time I’d been out for a couple of weeks and my dart game showed it. Only eight brave souls challenged the stormy weather to attend, so we played a singles tournament. I faced off with Billy, one of the top players, in the first round and she promptly dispatched me to the loser’s bracket with a 2-0 victory. I clawed my way back and faced off against Billy in the semi-finals where I returned the favor, beating her 2-0. Played Beth in the championship round, but I ran out of gas and couldn’t hang with her. Second place was better than I expected, and probably deserved, though.

Facebook memories reminded me of my final commute home from work at the United States Department of Education in Washington, DC.

I guess in a way it was two lifetimes ago. I had the Korean life ahead of me and now I’m doing the Philippines life. Who knows what, if anything, is coming next? I’m just taking things one day at a time now and working hard at being satisfied with good enough.

My diet discipline has not been good enough, however. I’m going to have to come up with some new strategies.

Still raining but now we are getting some pretty strong winds to go with it. I’m waiting for the trees that block my view to blow over, no luck with that yet, though. I got caught in a squall on the dog walk this morning. Wind and rain so hard that I took refuge in the carport of a house that’s under construction. The rain looked like waves in the sky which was quite impressive to see. I tried to capture it with the phone camera, but this is the best I could do:

We did a wet Wednesday Walkers hike later in the morning. I’ll share some pictures from that adventure tomorrow.

Keep smiling, bitches!

During my explorations, I came across three named streets without houses. Granted, there does appear to be at least one or two vacant lots on each that could someday result in these forlorn and empty roads being adopted into the housing community. Until then, here is how they look today:

So, we have one more street to explore and I saved the best for last. It’s the one I live on, of course. The adventure concludes tomorrow! Weather permitting, that is!

Tally:

12 streets

51 houses

It’s an aptly named street though, I can’t imagine it being any rainier than it has been these past few days. *ahem*

Anyway, it’s a pretty short street with only two houses. But both of them are quite magnificent.

Here are some photos I took at a birthday party I attended there last year:

One of the nicest houses I’ve been inside. Ever.

So, that’s it for Mount Rainer Avenue. It packs quite a punch for its short stature.

Totals so far:

9 streets

51 houses

…sayeth the rain.

Who knew Mother Nature reads my blog? All that bravado and trash talk about beating the rain came back to bite me. I was so good at predicting the breaks in the rain cycle–until last night. Even with the umbrella, I got soaked. Those wind gusts did the trick. You win, Mother.

So, it is Hash Monday and the rain has continued on and off throughout the day. Our “sane” group has decided not to climb the mountain the Hare had intended for us, and we have already plotted an alternative route. Full report on that tomorrow.

After some warm-up drinks at Palm Tree and Mango’s last night, I crossed the highway to The Pub for some dinner. I got enticed by the “senior special” the owner, John Kim, announced on Facebook:

Thanks for all the support last night. I thought I smoked enough turkey for two days, but all sold out in 4 hours. We will come up with something special every now and then. Anyways, when was the last time senior citizens got respected and treated right? Surely not during the pandemic. They were not welcome to go out, rejected by malls and supermarkets. I ran free haircuts for seniors but got nailed by authority. This time, I am going to do something easier; provide a special meal that gives people over 60 years old discount. Just because it’s discounted, doesn’t mean cheap food. I will be using high-quality material and charge everyone else normal price. I thought about several menus, but need more time to train people, so I am starting with REALLY CRISPY Sweet and Sour Pork. Regular price at P345 but for seniors, P250. Dine-in only to get the discount. You may take out or have it delivered, but won’t get a discount. You can now save money at The Pub so that you can go around and drink more.

How could I refuse an offer like that? I am happy to report that when I arrived only one table was left available–John’s hard work seems to be paying off!

This morning, I decided to try somewhere new for breakfast–the A.M. hotel.

It’s actually probably the closest dining venue to my house and I’d never even been inside. You enter through the street-level parking garage. The restaurant is on the fourth floor, so I walked over and pushed the button to go up. Nothing happened, so I pushed it again. Then the receptionist came out to advise the elevator was not in service. Hmm. Okay, I know a guy who is going to be climbing twenty-six floors as a hobby, I figure I can do four. So up I went.

I was the only customer. Pretty good breakfast selections, although the emphasis seemed to be on Filipino foods, which I expect is the target audience for this hotel. Still, I enjoyed the “cheesy beef” omelet I ordered. Brewed coffee came free with the meal, including refills. Never seen that anywhere else since I left the USA.

What else? Well, I’d like to report that I taught Lucky to play dead.

This innocent little cartoon got a rise out of my liberal ex-wife Carol.

I came across this article in Men’s Health stating that men need to ejaculate 21 times a month to reduce prostate cancer. Damn, I want to live a healthy life, but I’m not sure I can afford that many ejaculations at the price I’m paying. I’ll think of something.

In somewhat related news, here’s the answer to that age-old question:

Time to go Hash. I’ll be back tomorrow with more!

Where I come from we have avenues, boulevards, streets, roads, drives, lanes, circles, and parkways. Never heard of a bend before moving here. But the designation seems apt–Everglades is the longest street in Alta Vista, traversing the subdivision end-to-end, with lots of twists and turns along the way. So, bend it is!

Everglades starts at the main gate and meanders its way through the subdivision. It has more houses than any other street, which I suppose given its length is that surprising. My former landlords, the Ocampo family, are big property owners on this street. I’m not sure, but I think they may have been partners in the development of Alta Vista as well. One clue is that they are using one of the gates for advertising:

Okay, let’s head up the road.

And that’s the last house on Everglades Bend. But that is not it for the road.

So, that’s the story of Everglades Bend. Twenty-five residences on this one street, which more than doubles the count from the previous seven streets.

Still more to come!

Today’s tally:

8 streets

49 houses (including duplexes)

As I was leaving the house yesterday for my nightly foray in Barretto, I hesitated momentarily when reaching for my umbrella. It was still sunny, but there were some worrisome clouds out on the horizon. Better safe than sorry, I decided. Good thing, too. Just a few minutes into my walk there was a pretty intense rain shower. Didn’t last long, but I would have been soaked without my trusty umbrella. It wound up raining off and on all night long. I woke up around 0100 to the sound of water hitting the metal cover of my bedroom a/c unit. Sounded like a drummer’s cymbal, but the drummer had no sense of rhythm. I eventually got up and spent the rest of the night on the couch to escape the maddening noise. Yeah, I have a hard life, I know.

A friend of mine has opened up what she calls a bar and grill, so I dropped in for her grand opening last night.

I doubt I’ll become a regular, just a little too cramped for my comfort. I honestly don’t see how Marick can generate enough revenue on beer sales and pub food (burgers and appetizers) to make a go of it. I suspect she intends to cater to a Filipino crowd. Marick used to manage another bar and I think she has good business sense, the problem is the venue. It occurred to me that if she teamed up with my other Filipina friend who is looking to open a food operation, and they got a bigger building with a bar and maybe a pool table, they could probably make a go of it. I broached the idea with my friend but she isn’t a Marick fan. Oh well.

I headed over to Mango’s after leaving Marick. They let me sit on the back patio despite it being covered in sand from an earlier high tide.

I saw a caterpillar invasion on my dog walk this morning.

I guess I better keep the top securely closed on my margarine. Soon those critters will be butter flys. *sorry*

Did a two-hour hike this morning. The sky looked like this when I departed:

A pretty standard walk for me, so nothing new or particularly interesting to see along the way. Well, there was this:

Speaking of walking, Facebook shared this photo from four years ago today:

It’s odd how an innocuous picture like that can trigger so many memories. I actually remember that day and the route I was taking–my Anjeong-ri river walk. And of course, I remember the feelings I once held for Mi Young that were not reciprocated. But mostly this photo reminds me of my astounding ignorance. I’m sure I was not happy with my life that day, despite my massive salary and government-provided palace. I had it made, but all I could think about was what I had lost and how anxious I was to start my new life in the Philippines. I never allowed myself to live in the moment and appreciate the beauty that surrounded me. Ignorance is not really bliss.

A good reminder for me to live my new life one day at a time and to be thankful for all that I have. I’m getting better at that I think.

Here’s the ad for the house if you are interested. Some better photos of the exterior and some inside shots as well.

So, that’s it for Bryce. Next up will be the longest street in the subdivision and a major thoroughfare (it’s how I get to my house too). Lots more to see!

Where we stand:

7 streets

24 houses

Yeah, you heard (read) that right…I’m not going to complain about the rain today! Now, it was a tad hot and muggy on my morning walkabout, but I’ll that go this time.

Granted, we did have a brief shower earlier this afternoon, but the sun is back out and I’m glad to see it.

I wasn’t happy to see this when I stopped to take a leak during my hike.

Things were a bit more festive last night when I helped Roan celebrate her 35th birthday. It was a quiet night customer-wise, but I made sure there was cake and food for the girls to share.

As usual, I enjoyed the banter and drinks with Roan. She’s good company and we always share a lot of laughs. I can *almost* imagine what a lifetime of companionship with her would be like. She kind of surprised me when she told me during one of our conversations that she has no desire to be married. She’d be happy with a loving relationship as long as the love was there. She wants to be free to leave when it is not. Smart girl.

Speaking of smart (or maybe the opposite thereof), five of us braved the rainy weather for a long and wet hike yesterday. I led the group on a flat 10.5K trek out to Naugsol and back. It only rained about half the time. We were soaked but not deterred.

No worries. We found a walkaround and made our way safely to Sit-n-Bull for some lunch and some beers. Despite the rain, it was a very nice hike.

Oh yeah, I posted the graphic below today on Facebook and the liberals thought I was making a case for gun control! I just laughed and reminded them that the mayor of DC has been defunding the police while simultaneously mandating wearing useless masks. I’d say her priorities are misplaced.

And that’s all there is to Grand Canyon. Punching above its weight I reckon; sporting three houses on such a small street.

More to come as the exploration of Alta Vista continues. Stay tuned!

Where things stand:

6 streets

20 houses

Another rainy day here in the Philippines. At least today has featured some occasional breaks in the storm. I can deal with the rain better as long as I have a window of opportunity to move around outside for a bit without getting soaked to the skin.

Last night I did make it out to Mango’s for dinner at least. I changed things up a bit and saved the pork chops for a, um, sunny day.

I was scrolling through Facebook while I ate and saw that Ron, the owner of Sit-n-Bull, announced he had a new shipment of carrot cake in stock. I promptly asked him to reserve one for me, he did, and I brought it home today.

A bit pricey at $18., but I couldn’t miss out on the chance to enjoy my favorite cake. Yeah, I know I am supposed to be on a diet. I’ll get back on track once the cake is gone. Promise!

Speaking of cake, I’m going to go out and purchase one this afternoon. It’s Roan’s birthday and she’s working tonight at It Doesn’t Matter. She’s a sweet gal and I want to bring a little sweetness into her life in the form of a surprise birthday cake.

And that’s about all that is happening here. We did do our Friday hike this morning–wet and long. I’ll post some photos of that event tomorrow.

Then three houses in a row:

Sorry about the litter in that last photo. It’s from the construction workers building that white house. I really don’t understand why it is so fucking hard to grasp the concept of taking your trash with you.

So, there you have a tour of a major thoroughfare in our subdivision. Also, one of the most developed streets here. Still more to come though, so hold on for the next installment.

Standings:

5 streets

17 houses